The Utzy Blog

Five Health Benefits Of Playing Soccer

Soccer lovers are indulged in their game not only for the sake of fun and their passion for football, but normally people do not realize how healthy and beneficial playing soccer can be!

Playing soccer is like working out without even realizing that you’re working out. And it is extremely healthy. I will explain to you numerous ways in which playing soccer can be healthy for you.

Read on to find out the health benefits of soccer.

1. Stronger Muscles

Soccer helps you strengthen your muscles of both, upper and lower body. It is a myth that soccer only makes the lower body strong because when a player is attempting to shield the ball or is holding a player off, they are constantly utilizing their upper body muscles. It develops your chest and arm muscles.

The constant utilization of upper body affects your glutes and core as well. To keep your muscles active and working, you can count on your routine soccer matches to strengthen your whole body.

To be better at soccer, you need to have strong muscles in both upper and lower region of your body, and playing soccer helps you develop them. So, the success of your soccer is dependent on your practice of soccer. For better and stronger muscles, play soccer more often.

2. Better Cognition Skills

Did you know that playing soccer can help improve your cognitive skills? Constant running tends to make the blood circulation increased throughout one's body which makes brain's memory circuits active.

While playing soccer, one might need to think quickly on their feet and be decisive about their moves. Similarly, while you're playing soccer, you need to be much more observant and keep an eye on the moves of your opponent.

If you're a defender, you will have to figure out what tactics are being employed by your opponent. All of these requisitions make your cognitive skills much better and keep your brain very active.

3. It Helps You To Burn Fat

Did you know that your favorite game is the best replacement for your workout routine? Well, you may as well oust the treadmill from your home now and ditch the console you play FIFA on because FIFA might teach you a lot about soccer but it sure isn’t going to get the pounds off.

Get off the couch, grab a ball and head to the field to play soccer. The thing is, playing soccer gets your heart rate up and the constant running for at least ninety minutes during a match will get you sweating like a pig! (Literally)

Sweating means weight loss; the equation is pretty simple. I've seen people tone up their jiggly thighs and lose the belly pooch in no time just by playing soccer every single day with the same passion.

4. It Strengthens the Heart

What does happen to your heart muscles when your heart beats at the rate of ninety beats per minute for about ninety minutes? It is what we call cardio, and and it is a great replacement for modern day cardio workouts. I'll explain to you how it works.

When people play soccer, they mostly switch between walking, jogging and running. This is pretty much like High-Intensity Interval Training, which is known as HIIT. In HIIT you switch between different paces to quickly raise and lower your heart rate.

This type of pace quickly gets you to lose your fat. I can vouch for this method because I’ve personally lost fifteen pounds in just a couple of months simply by playing regularly playing soccer.

5. You’ll Be A Happier Person

And you might not believe that sport can make you happy, but trust me. Many psychologists recommend playing sports. The reason is that sports are a great source of endorphins, also known as the “happiness hormones”.

Endorphins are great stress-releasers and ultimately make you a happier individual. All this from getting exercise! Happy people tend to be healthier individuals and therefore soccer is one of the healthiest hobbies that one can take up.